But this is no time to take a deep breath and hope for the best; last night's game dropped them to 14-24, 7-13 on the road, and was only the first of three straight on the road, continuing tonight in Houston and Friday night in (shudder) Boston.
The degree of difficulty of this three-game set: The Spurs, Rockets and Celtics are a combined 34-13 at home and 75-35.
To new Sixers president/general manager Eddie Stefanski, all of the above represents nothing more than the sheer reality of the circumstances he knew he was accepting when he left his position as general manager of the New Jersey Nets to succeed the fired Billy King.
"There's nothing different [now] in our thought process," Stefanski said in a telephone conversation. "We're X-number of players away from the level where we want to be. This is nothing I didn't know when I took the job."
With the Feb. 21 in-season trading deadline approaching, Stefanski said, "There's nothing real hot right now."
That includes anything of real substance concerning point guard Andre Miller, the Sixer most wanted by other teams.
"We'll go to the trade deadline looking to improve, but there will be no changes for the sake of change," Stefanski said.
Offers from contending teams are likely to improve as the deadline gets closer, but Stefanski is carefully weighing the value of any of them against the necessity of having an experienced quarterback to direct the younger players.
Stefanski declined to comment on the status of coach Maurice Cheeks, but a source familiar with the situation indicated that he was not considering a move in that area. Cheeks, to his credit, has done a strong job of keeping the players together and playing hard; he encouraged Thursday's players-only meeting, telling them it was probably something they needed.
